Four Ordinances

The Four Ordinances of St. Cloud, also known as the July Ordinances, were four laws enacted by King Charles X of France and Prime Minister of France Jules de Polignac in July 1830 without parliamentary approval. These ordinances imposed further limitations on freedom of the press, dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, scheduled new elections, and restricted the electorate further in order to weaken the moderate royalist and liberal opposition. The ordinances led to the July Revolution, spurred on by the bourgeois enemies of the aristocracy, and the overthrow of the Bourbon Restoration.